Traessbel Kin'toni Clan

History

The clan was founded by Hathvor as he gathered his followers and headed to embrace the first whisps of the coming winter. They devoted themselves to learning to survive the harsh cold climate and built a settlement where none but the most worthy could even get to. There they thrived and grew and learned the strength required to be the perfect vanguard for the ice. Over the years their forms became so ravaged by the hard bitter cold that they lost the appearance of being alive. And once they were ready, Hathvor led his forces on a campaign to claim all the lands touched by the ice.

Their armies spread over the frosted terrain like a plague. Any zu'aan that was unlucky enough to be caught in their path became witness to the horror of the clan members as they fed on and turned them one by one. The other clans of kin'toni attempted to halt the march on their lands, but many were forced to retreat. Finally, as Hathvor readied to march past the frozen lands, the other clans banded together with the armies of the nearby zu'aan settlements and pushed back against the monstrous horde. They forced the Traessbel clan and those they turned all the way back to the gates of their glacial home.

And as his forces were held from coming to his aid, Hathvor the Haunted met his end. His death marked the end of the first conquest, and the end of a singular leader for the Traessbel. His followers divided the control so that they all had a say in how they would be led. And as the world forgot about the horror they brought, the Traessbel waited and prepared for the next big freeze to occur. During that time they sent small bands of two or three of them out to find and turn as many zu'aan they could find. While it took many years and many small skirmishes with the kin'toni forces patrolling their border.

The Traessbel clan rebuilt and expanded their forces until their settlement was visible from the edge of their territory. The next winter, they made their move. They broke through the borders and laid seige to settlements controlled by the clans who had prevented their conquest. The rest of their forces swept over the frozen lands once again. The zu'aan cities closed their gates in fear that the darkness was returning, and the smaller settlements were abandoned for the warmth of the southern lands. The armies of the Traessbel pushed further south in search of more zu'aan and a place to make a stronghold to extend the winter.

However this winter was not the freeze they had imagined, and they had lost their endurance for warmer things. When the lands began to thaw they were forced to retreat further and further. Until they found themselves once again back in their glacial territory, waiting for the day when the world freezes over and they can finally claim the continent for themselves.

Biology

The eyes of the Traessbel clan members have dark green irises with white sclerae and horizontal rectangular pupils. While in daylight their sense of sight is relatively average, they have superb vision at night. Their hearing is extremely good and they spend days in silence to get used to the slightest noise for when they are hunting zu'aan to turn. Their sense of smell is also heightened, however it’s fine tuned to the scents of blood and meat. This is due to the sparce other scents in their cold environment. They do not have a sense of touch anymore due to having their nerve endings frozen off in the ice.

This can leave them vunerable to most attacks as they can’t tell their being hit. However, they don’t mind this as it allows them to press forward in spite of the damage. Their sense of taste while initially heightened in the beginning, fades until they can't taste anything. Combined with their specific sense of smell, they are unable to tell when their food has been poisoned. Though they are the same height as most average zu'aan, the Traessbel have lost all semblence of being physically alive. Their bones and muscles are strong and thick despite the fact their skin.

Which has become brittle and blue in the frozen cold, is weak against most weapons and much has been ripped off of torn. This gives themselves the appearance of being walking corpses. Those whose hair hasn’t fallen out yet often have grey and rotting hair. They have built a complete resistence to the cold and even the most extreme of frozen tempuratures. The trade off is that they are not able to handle tempuratures warmer than winter and they absolutely hate fire because of how quickly they can burn up. They can be fast and sure footed on the ice but they do not move as well in the other regions.

They are extraordinarily strong and use that strength to rip their enemies apart. They are cold to the touch, and due to their missing bits of skin they appear to have claws instead of actual fingers or toes. They no longer have to sleep and have an inexhaustible stamina that allows them to match for days without stopping. They don't stop for the loss of a limb, or for any cuts or scrapes they get during their long marches through lands they are not used to. Nothing short of a permanent fiery death will ever stop any of them from achieving their goal.

Due to their evolutionary mutations, those they turn feel extreme pain in the process as all their nerves begin to die and many lose fingers or toes while they transform. Some mangle an arm or a leg from the convulsions, and they are never able to use them again. Their incisors and canines take a more feline appearance to accommodate their carnivorous diet, and they continue to grow longer and stronger throughout the years. Further destroying their normal appearance.

Culture

The entire clan lives in a stronghold they built from the ice. It started as a series of sideways cylindrical homes in rows on top of a jagged glacial cliff. Now the stronghold extends to the edges of their territory and has been given the name the city of death by the neighbouring clans. The original clan members learned how to sculpt the ice and pack it to be able to trap in enough heat to survive. However over time they adapted to the cold and just built the structures to hibernate as they wait for the winter to return. They once wrapped their bodies in thick hides and furs.

But as they lost their ability to feel and grew used to the cold they stopped worrying themselves with trying to withstand the cold. Instead they have devoted their lives to completely embracing the cold. In the centre of the original settlement they built a statue of ice. It was carved from the heart of one nearby glaciers. They formed it to resemble a large coiled serpentine creature breathing shards of ice into the ground. This is considered a sacred site and the one place they can belong forever. Whenever they are on the war path they leave the eldest of them to guard the statue so no one can take their home.

They live for the conquest they believe is their future and have built their stronghold to be a place they learn how to make war on the world. The only ones of them that don’t follow their many customs at all times are the ones they send out to scout the lands in hopes of signs of the freeze and to turn any zu'aan they find. These ones make sure to wear fresh clothes and attempt to hide all hints of their transformation so they can travel without fear of discovery. Amongst their own they do everything as a group. They do not see themselves as individuals but as part of a single ever growing entity in service of their god.

At the edge of the farthest glacial cliff is a sword shoved into the ground as a monument to their founder and only actual leader, Hathvor. Every new clan member must make the dangerous climb to visit this monument before they are considered a true clan member. To the outside world they appear like monsters who walk in between life and a frozen death. Their campaigns in the winter are an attempt to prepare the world for the change the freeze will bring. And to that end they continuously prepare for conquest and then sweep through the frozen lands in the winter.

They have no allies and no treaties. Instead their borders are watched and raided in attempts to prevent them from their winter campaigns of terror. Because of them the zu'aan cities in the colder regions are always prepared to close their gates and the nearby settlements are ready to travel to the warmer zu'aan controlled regions the minute winter hits.

Government

The clan was originally led by its founder, Hathvor as it’s king and high priest in their religion. For many years he guided his people as they grew and prepared them to conquer the world in the service of their god. when he died, the clan held to his beliefs and his rules but altered how their government works. Now they have it structured so that every member in the clan has a say in the strategies and plans for the next campaign. Everything is structured with the next campaign in mind and they don’t care about anything other than fulfilling their purpose before the freeze comes and kills everyone else.

And while they hold to Hathvor’s laws, they have altered them to make them fit their new existence. The first law is “Honor the call, subjugate the world.” This is the only law that hasn’t been touched over the years. It is the core of their society and tied to their faith. It means that when the winter comes early and colder than usual, that is the signal to march on the rest of the world as it freezes and make all the zu'aan into clan members and kill any clans who don’t bend the knee in service to their cause. The second law is “Always stand ready, for the freeze will come.”

This used to mean be ready to march at the slightest instance and with not preparation. However after Hathvor died to the combined forces of kin'toni and zu'aan, they altered the meaning so that they would not be so unprepared in the future. Now it means that they spend most of their time training and planning for the conquests as well as sending out scouts to spy on their neighbouring clans and turn any zu'aan they find. The third law is “Never dishonour the clan, frost is thicker than blood.” Originally this referred just to the idea that there was nothing more important that the clan and their calling.

But after the defeat that ended the first conquest, it also took the meaning that they no longer would retreat from battle and only stop a campaign when the winter ends. This was further adjusted as they learned of some locations that have yet to experience the cold of winter. Now they will purposefully press forward to the edge of winter before stopping and returning to safety. The fourth law is “there is no individual, there is only the clan.” While this once meant that they were supposed to be willing to give their lives for the sake of the clan and the campaign.

It has since grew into all aspects of their lives. Now no one clan member is in charge of the others, everything is decided by majority vote and no one seeks an ounce of personal identity. Every single part of their lives is devoted to the campaigns and to the survival of the clan. When they march on the world, they do so as a single organism with multiple parts.

Military

Though in the beginning they had a formal military structure, that was lost over time. Hathvor once stood as their general and every member of the clan was a warrior in his service. Now they don’t have titles or hierarchies as they have devoted every aspect of their lives to their campaigns and the coming freeze. They train as one, march as one, fight as one, and hunt as one. Even though they are separate, the scouts are trained to think and act like the rest of the clan of winter warriors. Their first weapon is the cold of winter itself.

Their natural resistances and immunities allow them to manoeuvre more freely than the other clans they face. Some have even disregarded an enemy that had lost it’s armour or furs because they were not seen as a living threat because they would eventually freeze. The other weapons they rely on in both battle and in their normal lives are picks the original clan members developed for climbing the glaciers, and a spear with a wider flattened head that also acts as a shovel to get ice for their buildings. The picks can be used like axes and hooks to grab and chop their opponents in either single wielding or dual wielding styles.

The spears can skewer the biggest and toughest kin'toni when used properly with their strength, and can also lob off their heads if aimed in the right spot. The original clan members used these in a myriad of different styles as they marched through the frozen territories. Now however only the eldest of the clan members still use the old tools. The younger members rely either on weapons taken from their enemies in a previous campaign, or they use their bare hands and teeth to rip their enemies to shreds. When hunting they never use a weapon because they do not fear the zu'aan in any way.

Instead they will simply walk up to their prey and turn them. Never acting as an individual, the entire hunting party will attack the prey as one regardless of their numbers. Their casual way of hunt has caused an unforeseen tactic that has provided them with less actual resistance when they come across zu'aan. This tactic comes in the form of the horrific stories told about the frozen dead monsters that seem to walk right up to people and ignore all attacks as they then feed on and turn their prey. Now the zu'aan will attempt to escape rather than fight unless they are in a larger group.

Against the other kin'toni clans they resort to actually fighting and using their weapons and actual speed to overwhelm their opponents like a flood. With their lack of feeling physical sensations and pain, they will continue to fight no matter how wounded or incapacitated. They do not tire and have no restraint. This has led to some ensuring their own deaths, even death by fire, just to kill the opponents standing before them.

Religion

Taught by Hathvor from before they reached their glacial home, the Traessbel clan worships the coming ice age. They believe it is the work of a giant frost dragon they call Rohrvasht. In their belief, the world has betrayed Rohrvasht, who had birthed it from an egg whose shell is the moon. In response to this betrayal Rohrvasht will cover the world in its frost and kill all but those who worship the dragon and have prepared to spend eternity in the frozen lands. According to Hathvor, he was chosen to gather those worthy and find the land where Rohrvasht’s breath still touches the world.

That is said to be the reason they live on the glaciers. They believe that winter is the regular exhales from Rohrvasht in preparation for the final freezing breath. The longer, colder winters are believed to be the dragon’s sighs and he is pleased with his people and wanting to see if they are ready for the final conquest. And so they spent the early years of the clan getting used to their frozen climate and building a stronghold and a sacred statue in order to commune with Rohrvasht daily. To the Traessbel, the preparation and execution of a campaign on the rest of the world is all ways to honour and worship their god.

Every morning they come together at the statue and prey that he would send them out to conquer the world for him. After that they spend their days in sacred preparation for every aspect of battle and for every environment they may find themselves in. They also believe that Rohrvasht is not the only dragon in existence. They believe that the sun is really Rohrvasht’s jealous twin brother Hesvalstr, a fire dragon who has stolen the love of the world and seeks the destruction of all life. They believe this is why the Traessbel, as true followers of Rohrvasht are so vulnerable to fire.

And why they can no longer survive in warmer climates. They believe that any who use fire is a follower of Hesvalstr and must be killed before they can taint the world any further. They believe that once Rohrvasht has reclaimed the world after freezing it, he will force Hesvalstr to the frozen lands to be hunted and slain by the followers of the frost dragon and then served to him as a tribute to the true god. After that Rohrvasht will select the most worthy of his followers to take his place and birth a new world and begin the cycle again.

The one follower most jealous of the new god will become his fiery twin and burn the old world and those left on it away to become the stars in the night sky. It is because of this that the Traessbel clan members are not afraid to do whatever it takes to succeed in their campaigns against the entire rest of the known world. Each clan member wishes to prove themselves worthy of becoming the next frost dragon.

Miscellany

Nearby Groups

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Traessbel Kin'toni Clan

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